Saving the World From Bad Ideas

WePlanet
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a WePlanet podcast. The world is shaped by ideas—some good, some bad, and some that seemed good at the time. This is a podcast about rethinking the things we take for granted, challenging sacred cows, and admitting when we’ve been wrong. With your host, awarded environmental author and activist Mark Lynas, we take a deep dive into the environmental, political, and social debates shaping our future—without the outrage, tribalism, or easy answers. Help us save the world from bad ideas. Because the future depends on us getting it right.

  1. Bad Idea #39 "but that's just a technofix" with Adam Dorr

    4D AGO

    Bad Idea #39 "but that's just a technofix" with Adam Dorr

    Can technology save us from environmental collapse — or is it just another false promise?  In this epic conversation, Mark Lynas sits down with Adam Dorr, Director of Research at RethinkX and author of The Degrowth Delusion, to explore four simultaneous technological revolutions reshaping our world: energy (solar, wind, batteries), transportation (EVs and autonomous vehicles), food (precision fermentation), and labor (AI). 🧠 Topics Discussed: 💡 Technology as "practical knowledge" and how it compounds autocatalytically (self-accelerating) 📈 S-curve adoption and X-curve decline: Why disruptions happen in 15-20 years, not centuries⚡ Solar, wind, batteries (SWB): Now the cheapest electricity ever, with near-zero marginal cost 🌞 Why massive solar overbuilding beats battery storage (the Clean Energy U-curve) 📦 Modularity advantage: Solar/batteries work from wristwatches to gigawatt plants 🔌 From scarcity to super-abundance: Rethinking efficiency as "use what's available" not "use less" 🚗 EVs and autonomous vehicles: Battery breakthroughs and transportation-as-a-service 🥩 Precision fermentation and cellular agriculture: 10-100x more efficient than animal farming 🏛️ Political resistance: GMO bans, cellular meat bans, and horseshoe theory opposition 🤖 The fourth disruption: AI replacing cognitive, operator, and general human labor 💼 Post-labor economics: Universal basic income, luxury services, and navigating abundance 🌍 Why abundance makes allocation easier than scarcity (and nobody has all the answers yet) ⚛️ AI existential risk vs opportunity: Superintelligence as doom or salvation? 🌟 Star Trek vs Terminator: Which future will we choose? 👨‍🏫 Guest Bio: Adam Dorr is Director of Research at RethinkX, a nonprofit think tank analyzing technology disruption. He authored The Degrowth Delusion: Dispelling One of History's Truly Terrible Ideas and researches energy, food, transportation, and labor disruption. He's also a science fiction author exploring superintelligence and humanity's cosmic future. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● The Degrowth Delusion — Adam Dorr ● RethinkX research reports⁠ https://www.rethinkx.com⁠ ● Clayton Christensen — The Innovator's Dilemma ● Tony Seba and disruption theory⁠ https://tonyseba.com⁠ ● Mark Lynas — Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet⁠ https://www.marklynas.org/books/six-degrees/⁠💬 Quote Highlights: "Life is unequivocally better on almost every indicator you care to measure than it was historically — life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy, everything down the line." — Adam Dorr "The more energy we have available, the more abundant energy is, the more useful things we can do to garner prosperity." — Adam Dorr "My team has documented more than 1,700 instances of new technologies spreading like wildfire once they catch — it only takes 15 to 20 years." — Adam Dorr "Solar panels just sit there and happily make electricity for decades at near zero marginal cost. They really are a marvelous technology." — Adam Dorr "We're headed into a world of fantastic abundance. That means hugely expanding our capacity to restore ecologies we've damaged." — Adam Dorr "Our environmental issues are not an epic struggle of good versus evil. They are just problems. And problems are solvable with the right tools. Now for the first time in history, we finally have the tools we need." — Adam Dorr 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: @weplanetint

    1h 44m
  2. Bad Idea #38 "Solving energy is enough for solving climate" with Bruce Friedrich

    FEB 5

    Bad Idea #38 "Solving energy is enough for solving climate" with Bruce Friedrich

    Can we really solve climate change just by fixing energy — and ignore food?  In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Bruce Friedrich, founder and President of the Good Food Institute, to tackle Bad Idea #37: “Solving energy is enough for solving climate.” Bruce argues that focusing exclusively on decarbonising energy while ignoring food systems is one of the biggest blind spots in climate policy. From antibiotic resistance and zoonotic disease to geopolitics, national security, and the S-curve of technological change, this conversation makes the case that the protein transition must stand alongside the energy transition if we’re serious about saving the planet. 🧠 Topics Discussed: ● ⚡ Why decarbonising energy alone only solves about half the climate problem ● 🍖 Global meat demand: why “eat less meat” has never worked ● 🌍 Land use, deforestation, and rewilding at planetary scale ● 🧫 Cultivated meat, fermentation, and next-generation plant proteins ● 📉 The inefficiency of feeding crops to animals ● 🦠 Antibiotic resistance and industrial animal agriculture ● 🦆 Pandemic risk and zoonotic spillover from livestock systems ● 🐟 Cultivated seafood and the future of ocean recovery ● 📈 The protein S-curve and lessons from solar, EVs, and the internet ● 🏛️ Why government support matters — and where it’s already happening ● 🇨🇳🇮🇳 China, India, and the geopolitics of alternative proteins ● 🌱 Farmers, land sparing, and the future of agriculture ● 🌎 Food security, resilience, and feeding a growing world 👨‍🏫 Guest Bio: Bruce Friedrich is the founder and President of the Good Food Institute (GFI), a global non-profit accelerating the transition to alternative proteins. He has worked for more than three decades at the intersection of food, climate, and innovation. Bruce is the author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future, and a leading global advocate for plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated meat as climate, biodiversity, and food-security solutions. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future ● Good Food Institute ● GFI Europe ● SYSTEMIQ & Good Food Institute – The Protein Transition: Pathways to Lower Climate, Land, and Water Impacts ● What’s Cooking? (UNEP alternative proteins report) ● Livestock’s Long Shadow (FAO) ● World Resources Institute: Creating a Sustainable Food Future ● IIASA land-use & food systems research ● Our World in Data: Meat and dairy production ● UNEP & ILRI: Preventing the Next Pandemic 💬 Quote Highlights: “Focusing on energy alone while ignoring food is like lifting your foot off the accelerator — but keeping it on the highway to hell.” “If alternative proteins reach 50%, we could free more land than the entire Amazon rainforest.” “People aren’t going to give up meat — so we need to change how meat is made.” “This isn’t a moral problem. It’s a science and engineering problem.” “The protein transition is one of the most tractable climate solutions we have.” 🌐 About WePlanet:WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human well-being. Learn more at https://weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation: 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/weplanetint

    1h 6m
  3. Bad Idea #37 "1.5 degrees" with Kwesi Quagraine and Erle Ellis

    JAN 28 · BONUS

    Bad Idea #37 "1.5 degrees" with Kwesi Quagraine and Erle Ellis

    Is the 1.5°C temperature target helping or hindering climate action? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with his co-authors Kwesi Quagraine (climate scientist at NCAR) and Erle Ellis (professor at University of Maryland Baltimore County) to discuss their groundbreaking new paper published in Nature that proposes a complete rethinking of how we measure climate progress. The team argues that global average temperature targets — the organizing principle of climate policy since Paris 2015 — are intangible, unactionable, and increasingly counterproductive now that we've essentially crossed the 1.5°C threshold. Instead, they propose the Clean Energy Shift (CES) — a simple, measurable metric that tracks how fast clean energy is displacing fossil fuels in real time. 🧠 Topics Discussed: 🌡️ Why global average temperature targets are intangible and don't translate into clear policy actions 🔢 The problem with "1.5 to stay alive": What happens when you cross a threshold framed as a limit of safety? 📊 Introducing the Clean Energy Shift (CES): Growth rate of clean energy minus growth rate of total energy demand 🔌 Why clean energy is now the cheapest option in most developing countries 🌍 How regional climate impacts differ dramatically from global average temperature (Africa vs Europe vs small islands) 🎯 Why "percent clean energy" should replace temperature as our north star metric (aiming for 100%) 📉 The challenge of measuring energy: Primary vs useful energy, and why efficiency gains complicate the numbers ⚡ Heat pumps, electric vehicles, and electrification: 💡 Why clean energy shift creates positive competition between countries (not just climate guilt) 🗳️ Why clean energy targets need to enter UNFCCC discussions alongside temperature goals 🔬 The data challenge: Why IEA and others need to release standardized, open-access energy data 📐 The paradox of our time: Passing "safety limits" while developing real solutions 🔭 The narrative shift from "avoid catastrophe" to "build clean energy abundance" 👨‍🏫 Guest Bios: Kwesi Quagraine is a climate scientist at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) and former senior lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, where he taught physics, meteorology, and atmospheric science. Originally from Ghana, Kwesi brings vital perspectives on how climate policy impacts developing nations and expertise in climate modeling, including solar radiation management research. Erle Ellis is a professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. His work with the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report focuses on aspirational indicators for making a better future. Erle has spent decades studying global environmental change and teaching students how human societies interact with planetary systems. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● The Clean Energy Shift paper — Quagraine, Ellis, Lynas et al. (Nature, 2025) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00246-z ● Michael Liebreich — "The Pragmatic Climate Reset" essay Part 1 / Part 2 ● EMBER energy data and analysis https://ember-climate.org ● International Energy Agency (IEA) energy statistics https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics ● Mark Lynas — Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet https://www.marklynas.org/books/six-degrees/ ● WMO (World Meteorological Organization) temperature data https://wmo.int/topics/climate ● Paris Agreement (2015) — text and NDC framework https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: @weplanetint

    1h 4m
  4. Bad Idea #36 "No infinite growth on a finite planet" with Adam Dorr

    JAN 22

    Bad Idea #36 "No infinite growth on a finite planet" with Adam Dorr

    Is “degrowth” a noble environmental solution — or one of history’s truly terrible ideas? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Adam Dorr, Director of Research at RethinkX and author of The Degrowth Delusion: Dispelling One of History’s Truly Terrible Ideas. Dorr argues that degrowth — the increasingly popular environmental movement calling for economic contraction — meets every criterion of a “Truly Terrible Idea”: it sounds virtuous, promises the moon, spreads easily, appeals especially to the young, and catastrophically backfires when implemented. Mark and Adam explore why degrowth misunderstands economic growth itself, why material “stuff” is not the same as value, how technological progress consistently decouples prosperity from environmental harm, and why shrinking the global economy could never solve climate change — and would instead cause mass deprivation, collapse, and tyranny. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet,” this conversation will challenge your assumptions. And it lays the groundwork for next episode’s deep dive into the optimistic, data-driven alternative: a future where humanity and nature both thrive. 🧠 Topics Discussed: 💡 What makes an idea a “Truly Terrible Idea” (TTI) — and why degrowth qualifies🌍 Why degrowth’s core logic (“too many people consuming too much”) is seductive but false📉 Why “infinite growth on a finite planet” misunderstands value, not stuff🐎 How technological progress (e.g., cars replacing horses, digital replacing film) eliminates old harms🔌 Why degrowth would block the very innovations (solar, EVs, biotech) that solve environmental problems🔥 The “house on fire” analogy: why reducing emissions 50% still leaves the house burning📉 GDP vs wellbeing: is economic growth actually correlated with human development?🌐 Why degrowth is a luxury belief seldom embraced by people who’ve experienced real poverty😡 The role of resentment, pessimism and misanthropy in the appeal of degrowth🏛️ Why degrowth requires authoritarian state control and cannot be implemented democratically🤝 The win–win path: how technology enables prosperity and ecological restoration🔭 Why environmentalism desperately needs a credible, optimistic, tech-enabled vision of the future👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:Adam Dorr is the Director of Research at RethinkX, a nonprofit think tank analyzing how new technologies disrupt existing systems. He is the lead author of The Degrowth Delusion, a sweeping critique of degrowth ideology and a roadmap for a technologically enabled, sustainable future. Dorr’s work spans energy, food, transportation, and long-term civilizational pathways. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● The Degrowth Delusion — Adam Dorr ● RethinkX research reports (energy, food, transport disruptions) ● Studies on GDP vs Human Development Index (UNDP) ● The Limits to Growth: Malthus and the Classical Economists ● Steven Pinker — Enlightenment Now ● Literature on zero-sum vs non-zero-sum thinking 💬 Quote Highlights: “Truly terrible ideas don’t die out on their own — they must be actively refuted.” — Adam Dorr “It’s not that we need to do less — it’s that we need to do better.” — Adam Dorr “There is no sustainable amount of fire. Reducing emissions by half still leaves your house burning.” — Adam Dorr “Poverty is not virtuous. It is not something to aspire to. To believe otherwise is a failure of compassion.” — Adam Dorr “Technology is the only way we have a rational, data-driven basis for optimism.” — Adam Dorr 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: @weplanetint

    1h 5m
  5. Bad Idea #35 "THIS is the Future" with David Wallace Wells

    JAN 15

    Bad Idea #35 "THIS is the Future" with David Wallace Wells

    Welcome to season three of Saving The World From BAD IDEAS Bad Idea #35: ‘THIS is the Future’ Why Forecasts Fail – with David Wallace-Wells In the season three opener of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with David Wallace-Wells, New York Times columnist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth, to tackle a deceptively simple bad idea: the belief that we can predict the future with confidence. David explains how even sophisticated models can be wildly sensitive to small assumptions, drawing on examples from climate economics and the pandemic era, when many expert forecasts failed to anticipate outcomes even a couple of weeks ahead. The conversation moves from climate targets and energy transitions to the psychology of “normalisation”, the social aftershocks of COVID, and the way politics can swing dramatically with small changes in public mood. The result is a wide-ranging, clear-eyed discussion about uncertainty, risk, and how to stay serious about climate and democracy without pretending the future comes with a reliable timetable. 🧠 Topics Discussed: Why long-range climate and economic modelling can hinge on fragile assumptions What COVID forecasting revealed about the limits of near-term prediction How humility about uncertainty gets weaponised by those who want inaction David’s shift since The Uninhabitable Earth: less apocalyptic certainty, more systems thinking Faster-than-expected clean energy rollout, and the stubborn unknowns around fossil retirement “Normalisation” as a human superpower, and as a moral failure when disasters fade from view The post-pandemic social hangover: loss of trust, atomisation, and the politics of public health Vaccine backlash, the contradictions inside “anti-establishment” health coalitions, and what might endure Why the “world is drifting inexorably right” narrative misses how messy politics really is A cautious look toward 2050: warming, geopolitics, AI hype cycles, and nuclear risk 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio: David Wallace-Wells is a journalist, writer, and weekly columnist at The New York Times. He rose to global prominence with his 2017 essay “The Uninhabitable Earth”, later expanded into the bestselling book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. His work spans climate change, politics, and the social consequences of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (Penguin Random House) David Wallace-Wells, “After Climate Alarmism” (New York Magazine, 2021) Martin L. Weitzman, “Fat-Tailed Uncertainty in the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change” (Review of Environmental Economics and Policy) 💬 Quote Highlights:“Everything we think we know about where we’re heading is bedevilled by epistemic problems.” David Wallace Wells “The future is more manageable than what we feared, though the system is still full of unknowns.” David Wallace Wells “We normalise a lot, and that will govern a lot of our climate future.” David Wallace Wells “Every small shift in the vibes feels permanent, until a few weeks later it doesn’t.” David Wallace Wells “Treating one percent per year as a precise forecast feels abstracted from how decisions actually get made.” David Wallace Wells 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement advancing bold, evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and prosperity. We challenge bad ideas and champion better ones, grounded in human wellbeing and ecological restoration. Learn more at weplanet.org. 📥 Join the ConversationEmail: podcast@weplanet.org Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast Follow on X: @WePlanetInt

    1h 3m
  6. Bad Idea #34 “Nuclear? No Thanks!" With Bryony Worthington

    12/11/2025

    Bad Idea #34 “Nuclear? No Thanks!" With Bryony Worthington

    Is nuclear power too slow, too expensive, or too essential to ignore? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Baroness Bryony Worthington — crossbench peer, climate policy architect, and co-host of the Cleaning Up podcast — to take on Bad Idea #34: “Nuclear? No Thanks.” 🧠 Topics Discussed: ● ⚛️ Why nuclear costs haven’t fallen — and why China may change that ● 🇫🇷 What France got right (and wrong) in its Mesmer-era nuclear buildout ● 🇨🇳 China’s nuclear ecosystem: HTRs, molten salts, SMRs, and industrial policy ● 🧱 Why huge gigawatt-scale reactors fail — and when modularity matters ● 🌡️ Heat: the forgotten one-third of global energy that renewables struggle to replace ● 🇺🇸 The growing bipartisan nuclear consensus in the U.S. ● 🔥 Geothermal, CSP, and advanced drilling as zero-carbon heat sources ● 👾 AI and data centres: the quiet driver of surging electricity demand ● 🧪 Thorium, molten salt reactors, and the cult of “better nuclear” ● ♻️ Nuclear waste, fuel recycling, plutonium, and the politics of the NRC ● 🛡️ Risk, radiophobia, and why safety rules became so irrational ● 🌍 Authoritarianism, industrial strategy, and what China’s system gets right (and wrong) 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio: Baroness Bryony Worthington is a crossbench member of the UK House of Lords and one of Britain’s most respected climate policy thinkers. She was a lead author of the UK’s Climate Change Act, co-founded the children’s environmental charity Sandbag, and serves as co-host of the global energy podcast Cleaning Up with Michael Liebreich. Bryony currently leads work on clean industrial transitions, including repowering coal infrastructure with zero-carbon heat from nuclear, geothermal, and advanced solar technologies. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources ● Cleaning Up podcast – https://www.cleaningup.live ● BloombergNEF – https://about.bnef.com ● Kairos Power (advanced reactors) – https://kairospower.com ● Oklo (fast microreactors) – https://www.oklo.com ● TerraPower (Natrium reactor) – https://www.terrapower.com ● High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTR info) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_gas-cooled_reactor ● Molten salt reactor background – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-salt_reactor ● Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology – https://www.inet.tsinghua.edu.cn/ineten/ ● Repower Initiative – https://www.repower.world/ ● Jamie Beard on geothermal – https://www.texasgeo.org ● IAEA on nuclear fuel recycling – https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fuel-management  ● Waste Not (WePlanet nuclear fuel recycling report) – https://www.weplanet.org/reports/waste-not ● China’s solar overcapacity & exports – https://ourworldindata.org/renewable-energy ● Our World in Data: electricity mix – https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix  💬 Quote Highlights: “Once you build nuclear, you never regret it — it just quietly produces heat and power for 80 years.” “China has already built almost everything we were going to tell them to try.” “Heat is a third of global energy. Batteries can’t solve that. Nuclear can.” “Radiation is everywhere — from rocks, from the sun, from your partner in bed. We’ve regulated nuclear as if none of this exists.” “I’m not pro-nuclear everywhere. I’m pro-nuclear where it makes the transition faster.” “I’m a pro-humanity environmentalist. Nuclear is part of that story.” 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human well-being. Learn more at https://weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/weplanetint

    1h 2m
  7. Bad Idea #33 "Ultra Processed Foods are killing us’" with Sarah Berry

    12/04/2025

    Bad Idea #33 "Ultra Processed Foods are killing us’" with Sarah Berry

    🔍 Episode Summary: Is the food industry slowly killing us? Is processing of food the problem? Do we really need personalized nutrition? In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Professor Sarah Berry — nutritional scientist and Chief Scientist at ZOE — to take on Bad Idea #33: “Ultra Processed Foods are killing us” From the gut microbiome to micronutrients, ultra-processed foods, polyphenols, insulin resistance, fats, carbs, and the myth of the “perfect diet,” Sarah explains why individuals respond so differently to the same foods — and why population-level dietary guidelines often fail to deliver. They dig into the largest personalised nutrition study in the world, break down the science behind metabolic health, explore why the food environment keeps pushing us toward unhealthy choices, and examine how AI, big data, and microbiome analysis could revolutionise how we think about food. 🧠 Topics Discussed: ● 🧬 Why one-size-fits-all nutrition fails ● 🍽️ What personalised nutrition actually means (and doesn’t mean) ● 🧪 The PREDICT studies — the world’s largest personalised nutrition programme ● 🦠 Gut microbiome diversity: why it matters ● 🔬 Ultra-processed food: what the science really shows ● 🧁 Why sugar behaves differently in different bodies ● 🧂 Salt, fats, omega-3s, fibre, polyphenols — a practical breakdown ● 🧠 Why “calories in, calories out” isn’t enough ● 🏥 Why metabolic health is declining (and what to do about it) ● 🧘 How sleep, stress, and exercise influence food responses ● 🤖 How AI and microbiome data could shape the future of nutrition 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio: Professor Sarah Berry is a nutritional scientist at King’s College London and the Chief Scientist at ZOE, where she leads research on personalised nutrition, metabolic health, and the gut microbiome. She is one of the lead scientists behind the PREDICT studies — the world’s largest programme looking at individual responses to food — and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. Sarah is a leading communicator on evidence-based nutrition and co-hosts the ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources ● ZOE personalised nutrition programme – https://joinzoe.com ● PREDICT 1 study – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0934-0 ● Professor Sarah Berry (King’s College London profile) – https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/sarah-berry ● ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast – https://zoe.com/learn/podcast ● Tim Spector’s work on the microbiome – https://www.tim-spector.co.uk ● Ultra-processed foods overview (WHO) – https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/06/19/who-ultra-processed-food-guidance/ ● Our World in Data: Diet & Obesity – https://ourworldindata.org/diet-compositions ● Meta-analysis on glycaemic variability & health – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31220802 ● The Nurses Health Study – https://nurseshealthstudy.org/ ● Gut microbiome science summary (Microbiome Journal) – https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com 💬 Quote Highlights: “There is no perfect diet — there is only the best diet for you.” — Sarah Berry  “Two people eating the same muffin can have completely opposite metabolic responses.” — Sarah Berry “We’ve been telling people what to eat for decades. It hasn’t worked. We need a new approach.” — Sarah Berry “Ultra-processed doesn’t always mean unhealthy — but most of what’s on shelves today definitely is.” — Sarah Berry “We cannot separate nutrition from sleep, stress, and movement. They’re part of the same system.” — Sarah Berry 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human well-being. Learn more at https://www.weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/weplanetint

    1h 6m
  8. Bad Idea #32 "We don’t need nuclear" with Julia Pyke

    11/27/2025

    Bad Idea #32 "We don’t need nuclear" with Julia Pyke

    Is a world powered by clean energy possible without nuclear power?  In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas sits down with Julia Pyke, Managing Director of Sizewell C, to challenge Bad Idea #32: “We don’t need nuclear.” From financing and grid stability to biodiversity and public opinion, Julia explains why nuclear is essential to reaching net zero — and why the UK’s new fleet of reactors could reduce consumer bills, not raise them. They discuss the economics of megaprojects, how to avoid first-of-a-kind overruns, the role of heat in decarbonisation, small modular reactors, and how the Sizewell C project is reshaping both the local community and the nuclear industry itself. Whether you’re a nuclear skeptic or advocate, this episode offers a rare, detailed look inside one of Europe’s biggest clean-energy projects. 🧠 Topics Discussed: ● ⚛️ Bad Idea #32: “We don’t need nuclear” ● 🏗️ Why Hinkley Point C cost overruns won’t repeat at Sizewell C ● 🔧 “7,000 design changes” — and why copying Hinkley avoids them ● ⚡ How nuclear cuts system-wide grid costs ● 💸 The Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model explained simply ● 🏭 Why the UK needs firm, low-carbon power alongside renewables ● 🇨🇳 China’s nuclear programme and the myth of “negative learning” ● 🌳 How Sizewell C aims to be nature positive ● 🐦 Engagement with RSPB, Wildlife Trusts & Natural England ● 👩‍🔧 Women in nuclear — and transforming the industry’s diversity ● 🏗️ Local jobs, apprenticeships, and long-term economic benefits ● ♨️ Using nuclear heat for direct air capture and industry ● 🌬️ Is SMR hype overshadowing big reactors? ● 🎶 The Sizewell Choir: wellbeing, culture, and community 👩‍🏫 Guest Bio: Julia Pyke is the Managing Director of Sizewell C, the UK’s next large-scale nuclear power station. A former lawyer who helped finance Hinkley Point C, she now leads one of Europe’s biggest clean-energy projects. Julia specialises in nuclear financing, infrastructure delivery, and public communication. 📚 Recommended Reading & Resources: ● Electricity Distribution Networks study: government responsehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electricity-distribution-networks-study-government-response  ● Aurora Energy Research (national system modelling) https://auroraer.com ● UK Government: Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model explainerhttps://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g ● Hinkley Point C project overview https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/nuclear-new-build-projects/hinkley-point-c ● Rolls-Royce SMR Programme https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/ ● Natural England – Tony Juniper https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/about-natural-england/ ● Suffolk Wildlife Trust https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/ ● RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) https://www.rspb.org.uk/ 💬 Quote Highlights: “The thing that stops nuclear being built isn’t engineering — it’s financing.” — Julia Pyke “Counterintuitive as it seems, building Sizewell C reduces consumer bills.” “If we could drop Sizewell C into place without construction impacts, there’d be almost no opposition.” “Nuclear isn’t in conflict with renewables. It makes them cheaper.” “If nuclear had been built out as planned in the 1980s, we wouldn’t have global warming.” “We need nuclear that looks like the society it serves — not just white men.” “Big infrastructure can be nature positive.” 🌐 About WePlanet: WePlanet is a global science and citizen movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature and human flourishing. Learn more: https://weplanet.org 📥 Join the Conversation 💬 Feedback or questions? Email: podcast@weplanet.org 📩 Subscribe to new episodes: https://weplanet.org/podcast 👁️ Follow us on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/weplanetint

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a WePlanet podcast. The world is shaped by ideas—some good, some bad, and some that seemed good at the time. This is a podcast about rethinking the things we take for granted, challenging sacred cows, and admitting when we’ve been wrong. With your host, awarded environmental author and activist Mark Lynas, we take a deep dive into the environmental, political, and social debates shaping our future—without the outrage, tribalism, or easy answers. Help us save the world from bad ideas. Because the future depends on us getting it right.

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